‘Asinine’ Texas Power Market Worked as Designed, Professor Says

The Texas power market worked just as it was designed to during last week’s energy crisis. Preventing a repeat will require government intervention, according to a Ed Hirs, a University of Houston economics professor.

Utilities in Texas have neither incentive nor requirement to invest in weatherizing their equipment, Hirs said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television. That means the blackouts that came after bone-chilling cold forced power plants to shut down were both predictable and preventable. And utilities are unlikely to change their business practices unless they’re required to do so, said Hirs, who also serves as the school’s energy fellow.

“The...